Dando's sketchbook

Hey guys, I've been circling concept art for a long time now, and I'd like to finally make a real effort to get myself into The art department. to that end, I've made a resolution at the beginning of this year to sketch for an hour every working day and really sit down and work on weekends, before uploading my pictures each Sunday over here to get critique and see myself improve.

I update this first image every now and then, and its usually a self portrait.

I know these are a bit high school but I'm going back to the basics and so I'm re-learning a lot of the things I thought I knew before. I admit that I was pretty arrogant as a teenager and I didn't listen to my teachers a whole lot so I'm sitting down and filling the blanks. I've never learnt how to paint properly and I've never even tried oil painting but I'm going to give it a go this year. I've got a job and I can pay for what I need.

earlier this month I bought a new monitor for my computer and it's really hard to get used to. It's a widescreen and I'm not used to the change in aspect ratio, it turns out that the wacom tablet adjusts for it so now it feels really weird! I was going to save up for the smaller cintiq, but I've had an intuos 4 for a long time and apparently there's not that much to actually gain from getting the intuos. in the end I felt that I wanted to use traditional mediums very now and then anyways, so it's nice to treat the computer as a different medium with it's own rules. not to mention that sketches can be scanned in anyways and, well, it's just nice to sketch with a pencil now and then.

My two sketches this week are of a red pepper and my hand. I'm working on changing my sketching style as my cross hatching is messy and incorrect and my sketches are usually too light. I'm also taking a departure from drawing human figures for a while and I'm doing a lot more observation work. Don't be shy to tell me what you think, as it could be what I need.

(On a side note, the guy who invented the ass pat emoticon is a fucking genius, and why is there a wasp as a post icon? does anyone else think that's slightly strange? it looks like a flying turnip)

Hey guys, sorry for the late update. Here is a little robot I use when testing my games. I update him whenever my 3d or conceptualizing skills improve, hence the name "version 2". If you'd like to see what he looks like when he moves, you can see the animated version here.
On a side note, does anyone know how to change your sketchbooks picture?

I made it using graphite, and pastel for the highlights. the quality isn't that great as I took the photo with my phone. I'm used to drawing portraits. but not other things so in general I'm trying to learn to draw the rest of the body this year. I'm also working on a landscape that I should have done in a few weeks.

I don't know about it not looking like an hour a day. I can work an hour and only get halfway through a piece if there's a lot of observation and detail involved so I think thats a relative thing and I wouldnt worry about it. Just do the work and update when you can.

I really like the Clint Eastwood study and the sculpture. Those show you have a good eye for form and expression.

Thanks guys. I try to update every Sunday with all of the work I've done in the week but I do admit it gets hard to draw every day, and inspiration is running at an all time low lately. However, I have created a timetable for myself where I make sure that I draw at least three times a week (though, some of it is for work, and I can't upload it)

This is a quick sketch I did this week of a character next to his bag. I've been experimenting with traditional brushes in photoshop, and this one came out quite nicely

I have been spending a lot of my time working on some chainmaille for the upcoming waldorf medieval fest (currently it's a lot more developed than it is here) I wasn't sure if I should put this here, but I figure it's an artistic endevour of some sort.

Well, its been a long time since I've been on this sketchbook, but I'm back on course for drawing every day this year. Motivation is at an all time low, but as they say, you've got to run the water a bit before it gets warm.

These two are designs for a company's mascot. (a sheep, I know, thrilling, right?) I wanted to stay away from the whole cloud thing so I made mine a bit more stylish, the client wasn't that keen though, so I created another more cartoony one with a wry look about him.

Aside from that, I also sketched this at work, probably in about 5-10 minutes. no real story or anything, just when I don't know what to draw I like to draw faces.

This week, I've decided to put my daily drawing to use and start on an animation. I'm only working on the storyboard now but I'm taking my time. It's all done in flash. getting time and motivation to draw is frustratingly hard, and I feel like I've lost a lot of the skill I once had. I used to study at a drafting school and although I had to draw a lot of things which had nothing to do with human forms I drew non-the less and I got a lot better at it. at the moment I can only squeeze in about 2 hours tops a day

Good evening arty people. I've been watching Feng Zhu's tutorials on youtube, and in his videos he recommends drawing the skeleton or muscles over a picture of a person to get a greater feel for anatomy, and since it's something I want to improve on, I'm using my evenings to do it.

This picture is of a mask I designed at lunch. I've been playing a lot of shadow of the colossus lately and I was impressed by the game's minimalistic art style. So, when designing these masks, I decided to focus on just the shape without any values or anything like that.

I think if any of my friends had to see me in the evenings, listening to Creepy music, drawing girl's skeletons in the dark they would probably be concerned.
In any case, here is another demonstration of what a model looks like on the inside:

If you see anything abnormal do let me know, as I'm learning after all